tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070406398635030606.post7687820658595548444..comments2016-12-07T05:07:29.098-06:00Comments on Child Talk: A Shout Out To Some Language Learning PeepsChildTalkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288487055622728428noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070406398635030606.post-7004999699818456132011-05-17T09:03:45.213-05:002011-05-17T09:03:45.213-05:00Interesting story and great points! Reading instru...Interesting story and great points! Reading instruction seems to swing to such extremes at times (e.g. whole reading vs. phonics) and I think it is the extremes that create problems. My son is in kindergarten now and they do such a beautiful job of weaving in different strands of different approaches-- phonics, sight words (which are learned by memorization), whole language experiences, etc. I am hopeful that all schools are doing this now-- taking the best pieces of all the strategies we have available to us, using them, and then individualizing by focusing on the approach that works best for each individual child. (All this said with the disclaimer that I am NOT a reading teacher and so really, this is my opinion only!! Take it with a grain of salt.)<br /><br />But back to teaching toddlers to read-- I do think it is just rote memorization and there is so much time for that in the school years. IMHO, toddlers just need to be immersed in language in the context of activities with those they love. That will lay the groundwork for everything else to come. :)ChildTalkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08288487055622728428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3070406398635030606.post-5657503735714191252011-05-17T08:48:09.991-05:002011-05-17T08:48:09.991-05:00My dad has deep beliefs about the teaching your ba...My dad has deep beliefs about the teaching your baby read craze because it is more like rote memorization. My father never learned phonics as a child because the school of thought in the early 50s where he lived was just memorize the words because kids could do that easily. Well, nobody thought about the downfall in that, which is when you run into a new word, you have no idea what it is nor how to figure it out. This has left my father self-conscious his entire life. So, when he sees the commercials touting parents to teach their children to memorize words on a card, rather than learning to figure out the word, he gets upset. Luckily, for these children, they will have further schooling that should help with the basics in sounding out words, but how much will be lost when they&#39;ve already memorized most of the words semi-big regular words used to teach phonics?Mom on a Linehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11148983594692927783noreply@blogger.com